The Conservative Party’s losses in British local elections almost certainly foreshadow a greater calamity for Rishi Sunak’s government in the next national poll, probably later this year.
His Tories have governed Britain for 105 years of the past 150, albeit sometimes in coalition, a record that no other political party in Europe can match. But they now face a collapse that some pundits suggest will mean their end as a national force, their disintegration into a rabble of squabbling factions.
For a century and a half, unity of purpose has been British Conservatives’ secret weapon — the will to paper over internal differences in ruthless pursuit or retention of power. A hoary old Tory backbench MP used to say, back in the 1960s: "pro bono publico, no bloody panico!” He meant that for the good of the state — or, if you like, for his own tribe — even at moments of crisis everybody should keep calm and carry on.